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Kate Murphy writes at NYT about John Urschel whose latest contribution to the mathematical realm was a paper for the Journal of Computational Mathematics with the impressively esoteric title, "A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians". "I have a Bachelor's and Master's in mathematics, all with a 4.0, and numerous published papers in major mathematical journals."
But as an offensive guard for the Baltimore Ravens, John Urschel regularly goes head to head with the top defensive players in the NFL and does his best to keep quarterback Joe Flacco out of harm's way. "I play because I love the game. I love hitting people," Urshel writes. "There's a rush you get when you go out on the field, lay everything on the line and physically dominate the player across from you. This is a feeling I'm (for lack of a better word) addicted to, and I'm hard-pressed to find anywhere else."
Urschel acknowledges that he has faced questions from NFL officials, journalists, fans and fellow mathematicians about why he runs the risk of potential brain injury from playing football when he has "a bright career ahead of me in mathematics," but he doesn't feel able to quit. "When I go too long without physical contact I'm not a pleasant person to be around. This is why, every offseason, I train in kickboxing and wrestling in addition to my lifting, running and position-specific drill work."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday May 12 2015, @06:31AM
Well - AARP keeps sending me invitations to join. But the pills are out - even if I had them, I couldn't remember which ones to take or when. If it comes down to keeping track of sixteen different pills, each of them to be taken on a different schedule, I'm probably just going to die. I was absent minded as a youth, and senility doesn't help any.
Regarding the blackboards though - the first ones I encountered were actually green, and I often wondered why they were referred to as "black boards". The term grew on my though, and even after the world began referring to them as "chalk boards", I continued with "black board".
And, for those politically correct persons who might read this - in no way, shape, or form did I ever consider the term to be racist. The greenest chalk board is almost black, and the bluest chalk board is almost black. The darkest colors of slate were chosen, because every color of chalk used in the schools contrasted well with them.
Maybe they should have just been called "slate boards" from the start? "Chalk board" is so very inaccurate - you write on the slate board with a stick of chalk!
(Score: 1) by Bogsnoticus on Tuesday May 12 2015, @07:21AM
"you write on the slate board with a stick of chalk!"
Luxury! Back in my day, we 'ad to smack a pointy metal spike wit' a 'ammer t make our letters in rock!
Genius by birth. Evil by choice.
(Score: 2) by jimshatt on Tuesday May 12 2015, @08:21AM
I'm hoping to get out on the other side of the black hole called absent-mindedness. Who knows what lies beyond.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday May 12 2015, @11:15AM
I don't. Either nobody returned to tell or my mind was absent when the story was told.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford